The Perak Army attacked Meizhou City from the waterway. The water brigade and its transportation field brigade, two infantry battalions and teaching battalions were used. The land force was the special brigade led by Dong Hu. The total strength was 4,000, and its strength exceeded that of Meizhou's defenders. With the army and artillery superiority, it is only a matter of time before Meizhou is captured. However, this battle required the coordination of navy, infantry and cavalry, so the staff believed that it was more appropriate for this battle to be commanded by Ouyang Xuan. After Ouyang Xuan thought about it again and again, he handed over the command to Le Quan'an. Although he is good at strategic planning, he is not good at specific tactical command. The Battle of Pengshan Water has proven that Le Quan'an is an excellent general, and this Battle of Meizhou will also have the navy play the leading role, so it is most appropriate for him to command the siege.
The first step in attacking Meizhou City is obviously to destroy the enemy's navy. When the Meizhou navy saw the arrival of the main force of the Pili Army, they changed their attitude of eagerness to try, and actually divided half of their ships to go downstream, while the other half huddled in the water village. Seeing that it was getting late, Le Quan'an did not send a boat to catch up. On the one hand, the chasing ships will be bombarded when passing the city wall. On the other hand, the Perak Army has invited the Jiading navy to go north to attack the Mongolian army a few days ago. These Mongolian navy heading downstream will definitely be attacked by Jiading navy. A head-on attack from the navy.
Early on the next morning, the Pili Army's heavy artillery boats lined up on the water and bombarded the Meizhou city wall. Wherever the solid iron bullets hit, the Mongolian army's defense projects were turned into powder. As soon as the cannons fired, the more than thirty small boats of the Mongolian army repeated their old tricks, left the water stronghold one after another, and rushed towards the heavy artillery boats. However, now that the main force of the navy brigade is here, these Mongolian ships have not even approached the forefront escort ship, and they have concentrated fire on the light artillery boat and lost more than half of them, and the rest have fled back to the navy stronghold.
The Mongolian army actually dared to take the initiative, which really annoyed Le Quan'an. In his opinion, this kind of behavior is not very harmful, but extremely insulting. Immediately, the heavy artillery ship's firepower was directed to the water village. It's just that the Meizhou Water Village is quite large, and it's very difficult to hit the scattered ships in it. It would be a waste of artillery shells to concentrate the fire on it. After thinking for a moment, he sent out a blaster.
As soon as the Perak Army's blasting ships were dispatched, the Mongolian army panicked. It is said that some Mongolian soldiers who narrowly escaped death in the Battle of Pengshan River fled along the river. They abandoned their ships and went ashore before the Pili Army fleet, bringing the battle to Meizhou City. In their horrifying descriptions, the arrival of the blasting ship meant the end of the world.
The Mongolian army in the water stronghold hurriedly closed the gate of the stronghold, while the Mongolian army on the city head adjusted the direction of the artillery, trying to focus the fire to sink the blasting ship. It's just that the demolition ship is nimble and light, and it can go down the river. How can the Mongolian army hit it with its poor artillery skills? He could only watch helplessly as the blasting ship hit the gate of the water village. After a loud noise, the gate of the Mongolian army's water village and the surrounding fences collapsed. Several ships parked behind the gate were also blown to pieces. Even the tiles on the turrets on the wall next to the water village fell to the ground. The Mongolian sailors in the water stronghold suffered little loss because they escaped quickly, but after the fence collapsed, the gate of the water stronghold was completely blocked, and the remaining ships were completely blocked in the water stronghold.
Without the threat of the enemy's navy, the heavy artillery ship could more easily adjust the direction of the bombardment and conduct focused fire without any scruples. After several rounds of shelling, all the Mongolian artillery at the head of the city was destroyed. Taking advantage of the interval between Pili artillery fire, someone on the city wall began to wave a white flag. Looking at the same scene as when he attacked Pengshan City, Ouyang Xuan couldn't help but have a line in his mind: "Same recipe, familiar taste."
Cao Ergou led the field brigade and teaching camp to land from the dock, while Dong Hu led his troops from the north gate into the city, and jointly took over Meizhou City. After their weapons were confiscated, the Mongolian troops in the city were driven to the open space next to the dock. Ouyang Xuan, who was standing at the top of the city, looked left and right and felt that the number of prisoners was wrong. He estimated that less than 2,000 prisoners had surrendered, and he only saw a few war horses. While he was wondering, Dong Hu answered his question. It turned out that just last night, the Mongolian cavalry in the city secretly left the city, crossed the river through the ferry twenty miles downstream, and fled to Longzhou. They were riding on the more than 30 ships that the Meizhou navy headed downstream yesterday.
The prisoners in front of them did not include any Mongolian cavalry, but the newly attached troops and the defeated troops who fled to Meizhou during the Pengshanshui Battle. To say that the Mongols were extremely cunning, they not only managed to escape quietly, but also allowed the newly attached troops to hold on to the city to attract the firepower of the Perak Army. According to the prisoners, when the Mongols left the city last night, in order to allow them to defend the city with peace of mind, they lied that they would go out of the city to ambush the Perak Army. To say that these traitorous troops were stupid and naive, they actually believed the Mongols' rhetoric. If the Pili Army's artillery fire hadn't been too fierce, they didn't know how long they would have been able to resist.
Cao Ergou was the most unhappy about the Mongolian cavalry's escape. Although the Perak Army successfully captured Pengshan and Meizhou this time, it was mainly due to the navy's contribution. Even Dong Hu's special brigade also had achievements, but the infantry he led had not made any achievements and had been staying on the troop transport, and was even attacked by others. It was jokingly called a boat trip, but I had already been holding back a breath of bad breath. Besides, he really coveted the Mongolian horses. Although the field brigade had the largest number of horses among the Perak Army, Cao Ergou obviously wanted more. At that moment, he scolded the Jiading navy for not coming to reinforce the attack, which caused the Mongolian cavalry to retreat completely.
Ouyang Xuan was extremely satisfied with this battle. From a strategic point of view, capturing the two cities opened up the southbound passage and greatly broadened the channels for the Perak Army to obtain resources. Politically speaking, it not only overfulfilled the orders issued by Yu Xing, but also connected the Perak Army and the Jiading Army to assist each other. Militarily speaking, this battle completely eliminated the Mongolian army's strongholds west of the Minjiang River at a slight cost, and also obtained the extremely important strategic location of Pengshan City, allowing the Perak Army to occupy an important position in the confrontation with the Sichuan Mongolian Army. A favorable situation for attacking, retreating and defending. From an economic perspective, in addition to capturing nearly 3,000 prisoners, this battle also seized a large amount of food and other materials from Meizhou City. The significance of these free labor and materials to the reconstruction of Pengshan cannot be underestimated.
After taking a short rest, Ouyang Xuan took Cao Ergou's tribe back to Chongqing Mansion by boat. Because the Sichuan Mongolian navy has been completely disabled and is no longer able to confront the Perak Army, there is no need to worry about the defense issues of Pengshan and Meizhou. But the defense of these two cities must not be abandoned. Pengshan City could not garrison troops due to the epidemic, so Ouyang Xuan asked Dong Hu to lead the special brigade to garrison Meizhou City. On the one hand, he could monitor the movements of Pengshan City at all times, and on the other hand, he could clear out bandits in both places.
The Mongols only looted, burned and killed the occupied areas without any governance at all, resulting in a large number of bandits. Some of these bandits are good people who take desperate risks because they cannot survive, while others are mainly ruffians and market scoundrels who take over the mountain. The task Ouyang Xuan assigned to Dong Hu was to suppress the combination, restore local law and order, and lay the foundation for the restoration of the production economy.
